HYDROMEL aims at developing new versatile 3D automated production systems with a positioning accuracy of 100 nm for complex micro-devices. Based on ultra precision robots improved by the innovative knowledge-based self-assembly technology, this groundbreaking combination will participate in the massive production of high-added value strategic and emerging micro-products.

The combination of positional assembly - where objects are mechanically manipulated and positioned one by one - and self-assembly (autonomous organisation of components into patterns or structures without human intervention) - where objects arrange themselves into ordered structures by physical or chemical interactions- has never been achieved at the industrial scale and, as a consequence, is a new and flexible production concept permitting the development of a fully innovating hybrid automated tool for assembly of micro-products.

Relying on the latest scientific developments in robotics and self-assembly, HYDROMEL’s academic and R&D partners are working to make possible the availability of a hybrid/self-assembly technology in Europe at an industrial scale, which will be radically new and will push Europe as leader in the field of high added value micro-products manufacturing.

Thanks to the flexibility of the process, HYDROMEL will be capable of meeting requirements in wide range of applications and, as a consequence, dynamize existing markets and open new ones to generate employment.

Applications in the field of micro-mechanics, electronics, biological engineering, micro-fluidics and IT will be showed by the development of 5 demonstrators: